RCGA F5j #5 26 Feb 2017 Diggers Rest

A beautiful, warm, and almost calm morning greeted us for our rescheduled f5j event at Digger's Rest,a stark contrast to last weekend's rain and hail.

An easterly was forecast for the day, but first thing in the morning, was blowing westerly, but not an issue when you don't have to worry about winches. We had 8 turn up for the day, however Graham Norman was still sorting out his electrified shadow, and Norm Ripp's new plane was damaged on a test fly, so that left 6. It was good to see Bob and Russell back and competing after each had been unable to attend the last few months.The first few heats were easy enough with light lift helping most make their time Then the prevailing switched to the forecast easterly, which made lift a bit patchy at times, especially at lower altitudes. As usual with f5j as the day went on and the lift became stronger, pilots were taking lower launches. But there were still some patchy lift heats, especially in the afternoon, to catch pilots out. I remember at least one heat which caught all pilots out some heats with 3 minute flights. Of course thats the real trick, knowing when to take a high launch to find lift, when you've gotten away with low launches for a while.Everyone enjoyed the day, and it looks like we will have some more participants soon,the more the merrier.Finally it was congratulations to

Alan Mayhew 1stDavid Pratley 2ndJim Houdalakis 3rd

Next one is in Milang, South Australia, and for those that are going, see you there!

F5J State Championship 15 May 2016

We were fortunate to have a day of flyable weather in Melbourne after continuous strong winds and some rain for what seemed like weeks.

10 pilots made the trip to Diggers Rest and we flew for as long as the weather remained reasonable. That gave us five rounds with the last flight group dealing with increasing wind strength.

The flight scores tell the story. Some brave attempts at a low launch altitude with only one managing to fly out the working time. Lots and lots of outlandings with zero landing points. The occassional zero score for landing more than 75 metres from the designated landing spot. Some pilots, for various reasons did not fly all of the rounds and that reflects in their scores.

But overall, it was great to get out flying again and I believe that everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I certainly did!

Here are the top placings -

First place and State Champion - Wrenford BrownSecond place - Russell WiltshireThird place - Dave Milward

F5J#4 21FEB16

7 pilots lined up for a day of electric thermal duration at the Diggers Rest site.

A great day was had for F5J event number four. Conditions were calm to light winds with medium size thermals drifting across the field all day, until the sea breeze hit at 1540Hrs.

Even more so than usual, it became clear it didn't matter really which size model you were flying, the air you flew it in was the biggest factor.

We had 1.5m wingspan "Blasters" head to head with 4 meter "Maxas", showing that F5J is the big leveler. There were a number of launch strategies employed through-out the day with low launch heights generally, but not always, delivering good results.

Well done to Russell Wiltshire for taking out the event on the day with his 1.5m Blaster, just edging ahead of Dave Pratley. And a big "shout out" to Wrenford Brown with a good showing, with his new Kappa 3.6m glider.

F5J#3 17Jan2016

F5J #3 Diggers Rest 17 Jan 2016

Our winner and his Pulsar

The F5j event at Digger’s on Jan. 17, had 8 pilots. The forecast was light winds but at mid day this wind was quite strong. It slowly settled during the afternoon. Marcus has now joined the group with his preloved electric Prego. He has quickly shown us that even a balsa 3.2 metre model goes up when in lift as well as anything. I the first heat he had everyone “on toast” in a large down wind thermal. Unfortunately his motor decided to start up and so was disqualified. The winning time was 4.59!

The thermals were large and so was the sink, Chasing down wind at times was risky with several out landings.

3 newcomers joined us, Zdenek Busek and Gary Ryan from VARMC and Andrew Fenech with his electric F3b model.

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